Hope for Health Care Reform Has Been Elected!

Obama has no need for campaign ads like these anymore, although now he faces the new challenges in executing his proposals of change that have been presented all across the country for the past year. One of the more significant proposals is that of the health care issue. His platform focuses on insuring the uninsured and offering more affordable premiums, deductibles and co-payments as well as requiring all children to have health insurance. He also hopes to expand eligibility for Medicaid. How can this all be done? And how long will it take before this “change” we’ve been hoping for finally becomes a reality?
According to the Urban Institute and Brookings Institution report, Obama’s health care plan would reduce the number of uninsured Americans by 18 million in 2009 and by 30 million in 2018. His plan, according to the New York Times, “would provide heavy government subsidies for insurance for low-income workers”. Even if these ambitions are not immediately attained within the next couple of years as the estimates suggest, we will still be better off than if we would have had Mccain’s plans implemented. A few days ago it was confirmed by Senator Mccain’s ecnomic advisor Douglas Holtz-Eakin that his health care plan contained a large flaw; according to Holtz-Eakin “young, healthy workers likely wouldn't give up their company-sponsored plans for the $5,000 tax credit McCain would offer to offset the cost of purchasing private insurance.” The journal Health Affairs projected that “After a short-term reduction of 1 million in the number of people without coverage, the number of uninsured would increase by 5 million after five years” under Mccain’s plan.
So for all of the realists like me who are skeptical about how much of what Obama promised can really be done, have hope that the best possible candidate has been elected, and on the issue of health care (and many other important topics) Obama has a credible and reliable plan that just might change the American health care system as we know it, undoubtedly for the better.